


15th Day of Winter - Meet You Under the Mistletoe

by unjaundiced



Series: Winter Spirits [18]
Category: Naruto
Genre: 25 Days of Christmas, 25 Days of Fic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Humour, Kid Fic, Pre-Slash, Teen fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 02:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5399051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unjaundiced/pseuds/unjaundiced
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ibiki is up to something and Kakashi steps right into it. Poor Iruka gets dragged along too.<br/>Set the year after Makes Us Both Blind. They're 13 and 14.</p>
            </blockquote>





	15th Day of Winter - Meet You Under the Mistletoe

Asuma and Genma were pretending to be asleep at their desks, beanies pulled low on their brows. The lunchtime chatter had become deafening as girls tittered about what kinds of winter festivals they would be attending and the upcoming New Years sales. Kakashi had slipped out long ago with the excuse that he was going to check on Hayate in the Infirmary. No one bothered to point out that he headed in the opposite direction from the nurse.  
  
There was a brief commotion and a strident voice cut through the lunch time chatter, making everyone cringe. Genma sighed and pulled his beanie even lower _—Anko._ And she was carrying tape. Even worse.  
  
The Spirit Club Representative from Class 7 -C was definitely _spirited_ and liked to share her energy with everyone in the school, whether they liked it or not. The last time she had visited class 8 -A with a Spirit Club initiative, they'd ended up pink and orange and had to evacuate the classroom for a week while the crickets in bow ties were rounded up. Her ideas were never very good.  
  
The girl bounced past the windows lining the hallway and there was a brief collective sigh of relief before she reappeared in the doorway and the whole of Class 8-A froze. She grinned and raised her arms which were braceleted with _rolls_ of white masking tape. Nobody knew what that meant.  
  
She frowned and looked around, stamping her foot and pointing down the hall, shouting, “Hurry up, you dweebs!”  
  
A mangled pattering of feet thundered down the hallway and Kotetsu appeared briefly in the hall windows before disappearing as he tripped over something and fell. Izumo, his hair now long and carefully brushed to cover the scarring around his eye, hopped around him, green fuzzy things clutched close to his chest and clinging to his hair.  
  
“So _slow!_ ” Anko barked, yanking free long streamers of tape, hopelessly tangling them in the process. Izumo clumsily fumbled with the green pipe cleaners he was toting, trying to pull one free. Kotetsu popped up and tried to help him, spilling the rest of them in the process.  
  
“What's going on?” Kurenai asked, peeking over the top of her Ribon magazine to eye the rapidly growing chaos. Anko triumphantly held up several large knots of tape.  
  
“Aniki!” she bellowed. Ibiki, currently explaining a math problem to Gai, reflexively turn her way. “Catch!”  
  
Ibiki was just slow enough to catch one huge tape ball to the forehead. A second one beaned him in the chest. The third one missed him completely and bounced off the back of Gai's head.  
  
“What?” Ibiki sputtered, juggling the tape. “Anko-chan, these are too big!”  
  
She looked mad and pointed vigorously. “How else would you notice them! Have you seen the real thing? It's so small!”  
  
Kotetsu, sporting a silk bandage over his nose like his newest Visual Kei idol, Reita, jumped in front of the fervid Spirit Club Representative and began to chuck pipe cleaner leaves at Gai and Ibiki to distract them, ingeniously shouting “I AM A DISTRACTION!” as a battle cry.  
  
Short-term Memory Gai—as he was known in some circles—easily fell into this dastardly trap and began to catch the leaves like shuriken, posing like a flamboyant ninja for each success and slumping dramatically at every one he missed. His melodrama made him miss more than he caught and his unfortunate companion was struck with more tape balls as he tried to dodge Gai's flailing.  
  
“Anko-chan! What are you doing!” Kurenai yelped as some of the tape balls started to land near her desk. Asuma groaned, disguising the sound as a snore halfway through.  
  
“Bringing the Christmas cheer!” the rather crazed Spirit Club Representative shouted, suddenly ceasing her assault. She saluted the class. “Operation: Bring the Christmas Spirit! Concluded!”  
  
Genma snorted as the girl turned on her hapless lackeys and shouted them down the hall, missing the speculative gleam that entered Ibiki and Gai's eyes as they hefted the tape balls and pipe cleaner leaves. Asuma cracked open an eye and peered at his classmates with misgivings.  
  
Gai and Ibiki were plotting something. Asuma could feel it. The two rarely got along but the few times they did rarely boded well for the recipients of their decidedly questionable genius. He crossed his arms tighter and sunk low in his seat, chin dropping to his chest as he closed his eyes. At times like these, discretion was the better part of survival.  
  
Genma watched him from the neighboring desk and took his cue, slumping lower and pulling his beanie down to further cover his eyebrows. He had seen Ibiki smirking over something earlier before Anko had made her grand entrance and he had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.  
  
  
Kakashi shuffled down the hallway, coming from the direction of the rooftop access door. He had his hands stuffed in his pockets and casually stretched each shoulder with a lazy roll of his neck. The sleeves of his navy jumper were pushed up to his elbows, a level of dishevelment that was a clear violation of school policy. His loosened tie and untucked shirt were also worthy of punishment.  
  
Not that spending lunch hour napping on the roof wasn't already in violation of school policy.  
  
He yawned sleepily, his breath frosting the air as he exhaled. The upper levels were less inhabited and thus, less heated. Something about the cold soothed him these days. His bones ached sometimes; not just from the sudden growth spurts he seemed to be undergoing, but just an ache in general. Kimimaro-sensei, the doctor who had extracted the steel pins that had held him together since he'd fallen from the mountain, said it was all in his head and that bones couldn't hurt; that he'd healed faster and more thoroughly than anyone could have expected.  
  
Kakashi thought he was full of crap.  
  
He turned left at the stairwell and misjudged the distance between himself and the wall, shoulder roughly clipping the corner before he corrected himself. His lips tightened and dark red flashed under the silvery fringe of his bangs.  
  
He always forgot to use his eye, forgot that it could still be used. He didn't know why he kept it closed most of the time. Maybe it was out of respect for Obito as Ibiki liked to claim. Kakashi thought the boy was full of himself and just repeating the same psycho-babble as his mother when she ran therapy sessions at the hospital. There was nothing to respect. The damn thing just hurt if he kept it open all the time. It wasn't that he couldn't see out of it or anything. It just annoyed him. There wasn't anything subliminal about it.  
  
His left arm brushed against the wall and he adjusted for it, leaning towards the right.  
  
Damn but his right eye hurt when kept his left one closed for a long time as well. It was disorienting to have his whole field of vision skewed the way it was. It was easier to just close both his eyes. It was easier to just sleep.  
  
A soft pattering of shoes made him hesitate as he reached the bottom of the stairs on Level 6. He curiously tilted his head and his eyes opened lazily to inspect the newcomer. He smiled slightly.  
  
“Oi, Iruka. Cutting class?” he teased, eyes sliding shut again.  
  
“Me? Who's the one hiding out on the roof again?” the other boy shot back, playfully bumping him with his shoulder.  
  
“Mah, what roof is this?” Kakashi stretched his arms and crossed them behind his head. “You know we can't access the roof.”  
  
Iruka snorted and poked the older boy in the stomach, grinning as a lanky arm dropped companionably across his shoulders. Kakashi squeezed his shoulder briefly and pointed towards their classrooms dramatically.  
  
“Onward, Chibi-Kanchou!” he crowed, striding forward and dragging his friend forward. Iruka squirmed, not liking the reference to their new and drastic height difference.  
  
“I'm not small, you idiot!” he yelped, shuffling forward a few feet as Kakashi gave a rather impressive shove.  
  
“What are you talking about? You mean your application to be one of Santa-san's elves this year got _rejected?_ ” Kakashi looked aghast. “I shall have to talk to someone about this travesty! Let us go find a teacher! Or better yet, Jiraiya-jiji! I hear that man has connections!”  
  
His arm slid down Iruka's and his fingers wrapped around the younger boy's wrist. He grinned and tugged before taking off in a run, dragging a wailing Iruka after him and shouting “On Dancer! On Prancer! On Vixen!” while his friend flushed in embarrassment as curious students poked their heads out classroom windows to see what was going on.  
  
A commotion of a different sort was taking place at Classroom 6-A. There were a lot of giggling blushing girls standing outside the room in little groups, some stamping their feet with sheepish excitement. Inside, a host of boys were eyeing them with horror and crowded against the far side of the room as if distance alone could save them. In the front of the room, Kurenai was busy trying to drag Asuma towards the door as he relentlessly clutched his desk and snored as loud as he could.  
  
“ _You aren't sleeping, you fool,_ ” she hissed, digging her fingernails into his hand. His snoring grew louder.  
  
Ibiki sat nestled in the corner of the room dominating the bookshelf that ran the length of the room, smirking and scribbling something on a the notepad in front of him, almost giddily swinging his foot. His co-conspirator was jumping up and down next to him waving paper fans with heart-shaped mistletoe drawn on them and shouting random baseball cheers. Ibiki wasn't certain that the Hanshin Tigers really wanted or needed to Defeat Christmas as Gai was shouting, but he wasn't too fussed. The current classroom developments were _intriguing ._  
  
Then he saw Kakashi in the window pulling a blushing Iruka behind him and he _knew_ things were going to suddenly become even more interesting.  
  
“What's going on?” Kakashi hummed, casually craning his neck and peering into the classroom. He towered over the crowd of girls so he could easily see, but Iruka hadn't yet hit his growth spurt and was unfortunately the same height as the gaggle of girls and had to resort to shameful bunny hops so he could see over their heads.  
  
“Oh, Kakashi-kun,” Rin blurted out, stepping back awkwardly.  
  
“Oh? Class 8-B is here as well?” Kakashi closed his eyes and smiled, completely missing the way some of the girls' faces lit up.  
  
“Er, yes well...” Rin trailed off.  
  
“Mah, it looks like Asuma-kun is in trouble again,” Kakashi sang, tugging on Iruka's wrist. “Shall we go save him?”  
  
“No, don't—” Rin froze as Kakashi dragged Iruka through the doorway.  
  
A chorus of catcalls erupted from the classroom at their entry and Gai seemed almost beside himself, wildly flailing his fans and hopping up and down. Kakashi sheepishly rubbed at the back of his head, tilting it in a silent question. Kurenai had stopped pulling on Asuma, her mouth agape.  
  
Asuma, wondering what was going on, cut his act short and cracked open an eye, snorting when he saw Kakashi and Iruka by the door. He buried his face in his arm and snickered harder.  
  
“So what's going on here?” Kakashi asked during a break in the shouting, a silvery eyebrow raised in patient curiosity.  
  
Asuma, almost crying with laughter, pointed a shaky finger at them.  
  
No. Above them.  
  
Kakashi looked up and hummed thoughtfully. His eyes closed and he smiled, pointing up. “Anko-chan did a drive-by tape-balling again?”  
  
Asuma snorted, struggling to control himself. He peeked up and said something but Kakashi couldn't really hear it since it was muffled in his sleeve. Kakashi pointed up harder and tilted his head the other way.  
  
“M-man, I don't even—” Asuma dissolved into a brief hilarity.  
  
“My Rival!” Gai shouted from the corner, his long-term title for Kakashi suddenly sounding very serious. “Those are not tape balls! Those are emissaries of love!”  
  
Kakashi looked up. They looked like balls of tape stuck to kind of tacky pipe cleaner leaves little kids made. He looked back at Gai. “Cheap flower arrangement leftovers?”  
  
Asuma almost squealed with girlish laughter at that. Kurenai slapped him across the back of the head.  
  
“No, my Rival! That is mistletoe! ” Gai shouted. “We are embracing the Spirit of Love, a very important part of Christmas! Mistletoe is a white berry that you—”  
  
“I'm not stupid, Gai-kun. I know what mistletoe is and that–” Kakashi pointed up rather vehemently. “Is not mistletoe. That is tape stuck to the door.”  
  
“Someone's a Scrooge,” Genma muttered, tilting his head and eyeing the boys still standing in the doorway. “But then again, he must want it because he's still standing there.”  
  
Kakashi paled then flushed as the catcalls started again, this time joined by the high-pitched squeals of the girls outside. He couldn't even think to of something to say in protest besides a feeble “Hey!”  
  
He felt his arm move and something tugged at his hand. He blinked, having forgotten that Iruka was still attached to him. The shorter boy grinned and muttered wryly, “The trolls are hungry!”  
  
“What are you—” Kakashi tilted his head curiously as the other boy grasped his wrist and held his hand up, folding down all but his pointer finger. Iruka gently pressed their fingertips together.  
  
“Chu.”  
  
Kakashi felt _hot_ all of a sudden; frozen and hot. Then Iruka gave him a shy smile and everything in him melted.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted on Livejournal in 2011 as part of the annual 12 or 25 Days of Christmas challenge. The story takes place by years and utilises Japanese honourifics as a necessity. I tried to use canonical names wherever possible and created original character names as needed.
> 
> Due to the conditions at the time, the writing is a bit clunky but will largely remain unedited.
> 
>  **Vocab Notes**  
>  Ribon – One of many shoujo phone book magazines that contains both one shot and serialized manga targeted at girls age 8-13, oftentimes about crushes and things like that
> 
> Reita – The bassist for The Gazette, a popular Visual Kei band. He wears a strip of cloth over his nose because he thinks it's huge and hates it. (and I love him and he's a good reason for Ko-kun being the way he is now :D)
> 
> Chibi-Kanchou – Captain Small would be the closest translation for this.
> 
> Hanshin Tigers – One of the major baseball teams with a legendary rivalry
> 
> Chu - The onomatopoeia (sound effect) for kissing


End file.
